CAPILLARY ACTIONS

• SITE // University of Tennessee, Knoxville campus

• PROGRAM // green infrastructure long term master plan

• SEMESTER // fall 2018

  • ADVISOR // Ian McRae

• RECOGNITION // Master Plan Category Finalist: 4th Place Nationally (out of 67)

a collaborative, interdisciplinary competition entry featuring:

Danielle Cowan-Baker, Biosystems Engineering

Shinduri Vigay, Chemical Engineering

Luke Edwards, Civil and Environmental Engineering

Abby Stubblefield, Architecture

Zachary Orig, Architecture

Bekah Conner, Microbiology

Wes Lamberson, Masters of Landscape Architecture

Bridget Ash, Masters of Landscape Architecture

Sam Irwin, Masters of Landscape Architecture

Hank Mary, Masters of Landscape Architecture

PROJECT STATEMENT

The EPA Rainworks Competition challenges teams of multidisciplinary students at different universities across the country to study how green infrastructure can be used to mitigate stormwater pollutants on their local college campuses.

Our team was comprised of students from the microbiology, engineering, landscape architecture, and architecture disciplines. Entitled “Capillary Actions,” our vision for the campus involved a series of design intervention in the form of green infrastructure to improve waterways, reduce runoff pollution, and beautify the campus through enhancing biodiversity in a 50 year phase master plan.

A low-impact-development (LID) catalog was created for the campus of the University of Tennessee. The competition team speculated possible locations for the LIDs alongside analysis from students in civil engineering. Interventions in the form of roadway modifications, bioswales, rain gardens, bioremediation ponds, and permeable surfaces were designed to mitigate large amounts of stormwater pollutants that have a negative effect on the fragile Tennessee River ecosystems.

Personal contributions to the team project were focused in graphic direction and coordination with landscape architecture students. The intent and goal of my responsibilites was to ensure readability, execution, and aesthetic for all featured drawings and boards. The ability to work with several different types of students enhanced the project through developing team communication skills.